We bought a older home that had all the bulbs and fixtures replaced with LED lights of one kind or another. I have a ceiling fan light fixture and two pot lights in the living room that bother me. Particularly when I play with my dogs I can see the refresh rate of the bulbs. None of these lights are attached to a dimmer. Before I start buying up new bulbs, fixtures or switches I want to know exactly what I'm searching for.
I took these videos on my iPhone 6S Plus with the slow motion feature at 240 fps to clearly illustrate what I am seeing. Each video shows just a single light source being on at once. In the pot lights video the fan and fan light is off. I don't know what Youtube encoding would do to it.
Ceiling Fan light
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DddB_0QrV_8
Pot lights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FFI1atKoLE
The question I have is what exactly am I looking at. What is the terminology I need to use to describe the issue and how do I identify a solution for it? I've spent a few hours over a few weeks now reading and searching on the subject but 99% of the results are for LED lights connected to dimmer switches. Again these are not on dimmer switches.
Best Answer
Well in the UK, the first of your videos is called strobing the second is flickering. My own (non clinical) tests show that dimmable light bulbs (even when not on dimmers) and both halogen and LED seem to do eiter flickering or strobing to varying degrees, some bulbs more so than others, even when on simple on off switches. I don't know if it's bad for you though, but I would rather not find out long term, so I have tested many bulbs dimmable and not and found a few bulbs which don't strobe or flicker at all, not even a small flicker, even at iphone slow motion record of 240. Unfortunately, they are all higher-end NON dimmable Led bulbs. Must be the technology used on dimmable bulbs that allow some movement within the bulb. I have not yet found even 1 dimmable bulbs of any shape or size or make that does not at least flicker to some degree (even on on/off switches) when viewed in slow motion record. Thats why I dont use any dimmers at home which is a shame but if you ever find a dimmable bulb that doesn't flicker, I would love to know :)